Posts Tagged ‘Varta Max Tech’

The 1.5V AAA Varta Max Tech Alkaline batteries are the higher-end version of Alkaline batteries that the company has and are intended for use with high-tech devices, e.g. mMP3 players, digital cameras, photoflash etc. according to Varta. Varta also has a High Energy series that is intended for use with more power hungry devices and is regarded as the most powerful of all Varta Alkaline batteries. The Max Tech batteries we’ve had for testing here were with an expiration date of 06-2017.

Beginning our test of the 1.5V AAA Varta Max Tech Alkaline batteries as we usually do with a low constant current discharge rate of 0.1A we have managed to get just 787 mAh as capacity, so we were a bit disappointed as with the AA size batteries of the same type we’ve got the highest capacity among all models we’ve tested and we expected to see similar excellent results here as well. Going for higher constant current discharge rate the batteries still did not perform as good as we’ve expected them, so they were not like a high-end model, but the performance was more like a mid-end ones. And while the results we’ve got were still very decent, we are a bit disappointed as we expected more, and we should of course also test the High Energy models to see how well will they perform as well.

We have already tested the 1.5V AA Varta High Energy Alkaline batteries and as well as the 1.5V AA Varta Max Tech Alkaline batteries and they both did perform really well giving the hughest capacities among all other AA-sized Alkaline batteries we’ve tested. And since the 1.5V AA Varta High Energy batteries had the +23% more power than Varta Simply Alkaline claim and the 1.5V AA Varta Max Tech batteries are labeled as +130% in digital cameras versus Varta Simply Alkaline we are expecting these to perform better, even though such marketing labels are hard to interpret in terms of real performance unless we compare both types with the results of our testing.

You can see that at low current drain the difference is just about 2% at 0.1A in favor of the Max Tech model, however as the current draw increases to 0.2A the gap also increase and the Max Tech batteries are able to deliver more – about 9%. Though at the at 0.5A load the things reverse in favor of the High Energy batteries where they take the lead with close to 12% and by and going to 1A the difference in useable capacity you get is just about a percent. So the 1.5V AA Varta High Energy Alkaline batteries are actually not that different as compared to the 1.5V AA Varta Max Tech Alkaline batteries as they provide you with a very similar performance in lower load applications and in very higher load ones, as for the middle ones that we test with they just swap the leading places once for each.

In the end it is probably up to the price difference between the two types of batteries that can help you decide which one to buy, the Max Tech batteries from Varta are slightly more expensive with something like 10% more as compared to the High Energy version (though that difference in price may vary) and as you can see from our tests this difference in price may not be justifiable depending on your specific needs and requirements. Another thing to note is the fact that the Varta Max Tech batteries are also only available in some of the popular sizes and the Varta High Energy product range is much wider in terms of battery sizes and voltages available.

The 1.5V AA Varta Max Tech Alkaline batteries are probably the highest-end Alkaline batteries that Varta makes, though that is not very clearly stated. The 1.5V AA Varta Max Tech batteries are labeled as +130% in digital cameras versus Varta Simply Alkaline we are expecting these to perform quite well in terms of the capacity they will provide in our tests. Varta positions these batteries for use in high-tech devices such as MP3 players, digital cameras, photo flashes etc. and the pack we picked-up for testing was with an expiration date of 06-2019 with the batteries supposed to have something like 7 years of shelf life. Anyway, lets us see how good with the Varta Max Tech batteries perform in our tests…

We have started the test of the 1.5V AA Varta Max Tech Alkaline batteries as we usually do with a low constant current discharge rate of 0.1A and we’ve managed to get the surprisingly good result of 2748 mAh in terms of capacity – the highest for far we’ve got from an AA-size Alkaline battery! Going for a 0.2A constant current load these batteries still perform great and provide a lot of capacity and even further increasing the load they still manage to perform very well. So a great job from Varta with these batteries as they easily manage to beat the standard Duracell Copper Top Alkaline batteries in all of the load levels we test at, though at higher loads they may not be able to offer the maximum capacity among the models we’ve tested so far, they do it at the lowest level meaning that they are the best choice so far for application where the power requirements are low, even though they also perform great with applications requiring higher power and they are originally intended for such use.